9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Yaeji, Wednesday, and More

Music

Thomas Bangalter portrait illustration by Stephane Mane

Thomas Bangalter, portrait illustration by Stéphane Manel

9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Yaeji, Wednesday, and More

Also stream new releases from Rae Sremmurd, Tim Hecker, Brandee Younger, Calvin Johnson, Blondshell, and Nathan Fake

With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Thomas Bangalter, Yaeji, Wednesday, Rae Sremmurd, Tim Hecker, Brandee Younger, Calvin Johnson, Blondshell, and Nathan Fake. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)

Thomas Bangalter: Mythologies [Erato/Warner Classics]

Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter worked with the Opéra National de Bordeaux to score Mythologies, a ballet choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj and performed by Ballet Preljocaj in France last summer. Bangalter has said his score “embraces the history of orchestral ballet music.” Mythologies now arrives in album form, and Bangalter shared a few pieces of the 90-minute work ahead of its release: “Pas de Deux,” “L’Accouchement,” and “Le Minotaure.”

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Yaeji: With a Hammer [XL]

On With a Hammer, Yaeji builds a world around a magical hammer brought to life by its owner’s rage. “I’m just exploring weird songwriting that is peripheral to dance music,” the producer told Pitchfork. Yaeji teased With a Hammer with “For Granted” and “Passed Me By.” Her grandfather joins her in the the video for “Done (Let’s Get It),” in which both wear bunny dog costumes. Read Pitchfork’s feature “Yaeji Gets Ragey.”

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Wednesday: Rat Saw God [Dead Oceans]

Rat Saw God is Wednesday’s first album on Dead Oceans, following their breakout second record, Twin Plagues. The Asheville-based rock outfit announced the album with “Chosen to Deserve,” later sharing “TV in the Gas Pump” and “Bath County.” Rat Saw God also includes “Bull Believer,” released as a single last fall. Between original full-lengths, the band released a collection of covers titled Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’Em Up.

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Rae Sremmurd: Sremm 4 Life [Ear Drummer/Interscope]

Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi reunite as Rae Sremmurd for their first record together since 2018’s Sr3mm. They started the rollout of Sremm 4 Life with “Torpedo” and “Tanisha (Pump That).” Young Thug and Future feature on the new album.

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Tim Hecker: No Highs [Kranky]

Since his last studio album, 2019’s Anoyo, Tim Hecker has developed scores for the television series The North Water and for Brandon Cronenberg’s horror film v. No Highs is his return to his signature exploratory electronic material, and Hecker offered “Lotus Light” as a preview of the record. Colin Stetson adds rumbles and spurts of saxophone to No Highs.

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Brandee Younger: Brand New Life [Impulse!]

Brandee Younger is a harpist working within, and edging beyond, various jazz and classical traditions. After being nominated for last year’s Best Instrumental Composition Grammy Award for “Beautiful Is Black,” she returns with Brand New Life, an album featuring Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, and more. It combines original pieces with interpretations of the great jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby.

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Calvin Johnson: Gallows Wine [K]

K Records founder Calvin Johnson is back with his first solo album in five years. “Pink Cadillac,” a song Johnson wrote aged 16, led the record; Johnson said the track is particularly important to him because he wrote it shortly before seeing a formative concert—Tav Falco’s Panther Burns opening for the Cramps at Irving Plaza—and the rest was indie scrapbook history. Gallows Wine is his fifth solo record after countless releases with assorted bands, including, of course, indie-pop idols Beat Happening.

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Blondshell: Blondshell [Partisan]

On her self-titled debut, Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum excoriates lacklustre lovers with alt-rock hooks and torrential washes of distortion. To promote the record, the Los Angeles–based singer-songwriter made her TV debut playing the Hole-inspired “Salad,” in which her narrator poisons a man’s dinner, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Other singles including “Olympus” precede the LP.

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Nathan Fake: Crystal Vision [Cambria Instruments]

UK foot-mover Nathan Fake teed up his latest album with “Vimana” and “The Grass,” a pair of intoxicating club tracks featuring the Oakland digital folk artist Wizard Apprentice. “I fell in love with Wizard Apprentice’s ‘I Am Invisible’ and felt our musical styles were similar,” Fake said in press materials. “Their vocals are smooth and clear and sharp at the same time. They’re like a calm within the storm.” Clark also features on Crystal Vision, which draws inspiration from Italo disco and Chicago house to create a futuristic opus.

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